Total Pageviews

Friday, April 07, 2017

Reading Admiral Kurt Tidd’s 2017 Posture Statement for U.S.
Southern Command, two things jump out at me. First, there are repeated mentions
of budget constraints. Second, there are repeated mentions of Middle Eastern
terrorists, including ISIS. In short, at least from the outside this sounds
like a way to get Donald Trump’s (or at least Jared Kushner’s) attention at a
time when he is talking about increasing military budgets and ISIS.

Right off the bat:

Threat networks engage in a range of destabilizing illicit activities
that further dangerous ideologies or generate profit. Violent extremist
organizations like ISIS seek to radicalize and recruit vulnerable populations
in the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America. Hezbollah members, facilitators,
and supporters engage in licit and illicit activities in support of the
organization, moving weapons, cash, and other contraband to raise funds and build
Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the region.

That’s some serious red meat right there. When John Kelly
(who of course is now Secretary of Homeland Security) did his last posturestatement, he definitely discussed Middle Eastern terrorism but couched it with
phrases like “we have not yet seen evidence of this occurring.” But if you need money and money might be available, you do away with the nuance.

So we have a gradual expansion of SouthCom talking about
such terrorists as more of an imminent threat in Latin America, which gets
both the rightand the alt-right
excited. Go ahead and work with allies; go ahead and disrupt the financial networks. Just don't make this an excuse for ill-conceived intervention.